Definitions

I looked up the word "perception" and found this http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=perception

per·cep·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pr-spshn)
n.
1. The process, act, or faculty of perceiving.
2. The effect or product of perceiving.
3. Psychology.
a. Recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli based chiefly on memory.
b. The neurological processes by which such recognition and interpretation are effected.
4.
a. Insight, intuition, or knowledge gained by perceiving.
b. The capacity for such insight.

Don't you just love it when the first definition of a word uses a form of the word itself? BTW, 4 didn't have a title, just "a" and "b".

Anyway, I thought I'd post on the public perception of GWB.

1. He's stupid. How many stupid people graduate from Harvard with an MBA? It's not junior college, you don't get a degree from Harvard by paying tuition. Harvard actually expects it's graduate students to attend class and complete the assignments.

2. He can't talk. Do you think he might actually be thinking about what he's saying and looking for the right word or words to use? Maybe he's trying to "dumb down" his thoughts so that you can understand him.

3. He served in the National Guard. My father served in the National Guard - you wanna tell me his service didn't count? How about the service men and women serving in Iraq right now who were in their Guard units? You wanna tell them their service isn't important? And besides that, Bush flew a fighter jet. A job that takes nerve and intelligence.

4. He didn't complete his service. Not true, all his military records have been opened, people he served with have come forward and said he did. Did you serve?

Let's just leave it at that.

Nick Berg

I didn't know Mr. Berg, of course. I do know that he was a small business man who spent the last years of his life trying to help other people. He attended the University of Oklahoma where he ironically was tied to Zacarias Moussaoui, considered to be he 20th hijacker of the planes that flew into the WTC buildings, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania field.

The FBI questioned Mr. Berg when Moussaoui used his email account at UO. Moussaoui gained access to the account after Mr. Berg allowed someone else to use his account. How it happened is beside the point. Mr. Berg didn't know Moussaoui and wasn't part of Moussaoui's plans. But, because of this connection and the fact that he was later executed by al-Qaioda supporters, Mr. Berg became a small part of the war against America.

He wanted to rebuild communication antennas. That's why he was there: to help the Iraqi people. And it cost him his life. Does he have any responsibility in his death? To the extent that he was in an area that was dangerous for an American to be in, yes. Did he deserve to die? Absolutely not. Especially in the manner he did.

There are some, I won't name names, who say he was there because he couldn't find a job in this country. That's ridiculous. I still say there are plenty of jobs available in this country for anyone who want to work, but that's not what this article is about. He chose to go to Iraq. I don't know how he was taken by al-Qaioda, it's pretty pointless for me to speculate the how's and why's.

This was a life, a young life, full of hope and promise, that was taken by a bunch of murderers. Murderers who knew what they were doing was wrong. Why else hide their faces? That fact alone reminds me of the Klan who hide behind hoods and masks so they won't be identified. If what they are doing is so important, so right, shouldn't they be proud of what they are doing? Shouldn't they want the world to know they are proud of their actions? And, to me, worse, it's being done while they are shouting that God is great (Allahu Akbar).

I can understand why people don't believe in God. The things that are done in the name of God can be appalling, bewildering, and horrendous. God is great. But, their God is not my God. I don't and can't speak for Him, but I can't believe that my God wants His children murdering others in his name. I was taught that God wants us to do good and help others.

Like Nick Berg did.

Later that post...

I said that there are some, and wouldn't name names, saying that Nick Berg was in Iraq because he couldn't find a job in America.

Well, here's one name: New York's Charlie Rangel. As early as Tuesday night Rangel was saying that if the "Bush economy" hadn't lost 3 million jobs people like Berg wouldn't have had to go over to Iraq looking for work (quoted from Neal Boortz).

How many people still believe that Bush is responsibile for a recession that started in the 90's? My mutual funds began taking a hit in '99. That was my first indication that there was a problem. And who was in the Oval Office then? hmmmmm....when was it that Bush was elected? Bush might have been in office during the worst part, but he wasn't in office when it started. People who believe he was to blame for the recession also believe that Hoover was responsible for the Great Depression of the 30's.

I'm not saying that I agree with everything Bush has done since he's been in office, I don't. But, the economy is improving, jobs are out there, housing is up, interest rates are slowly coming up. We'd be even further ahead if the WTC bombing hadn't occurred. If you remember, that brought the travel industry to a total standstill for weeks. Not to mention the businesses that were destroyed when the WTC came down.

People, don't listen to what politicians tell you. Don't listen to what I tell you. Look it up and find out the truth for yourself. Put together a time line and figure it out. Do some research to find out what the truth is.

Look at your own financial situation and be honest. Are you in financial difficulties because of decisions George Bush made or decisions you made? Do you want to allow someone else to make your decisions, or do you want to live your own life? I can answer those questions by saying that I made stupid decisions that cost me a lot of money, these were my decisions, and I can't blame anyone else. I want to make my own decisions and live with the consequences. If I don't have a million dollars when I retire, well, I'll won't be able to do the things I wanted to do. I'll have to live realistically. I'd love for someone to give me about $100,000 right now to pay off my bills and mortgage so that I could start over fresh. But, it aint' gonna happen. I have to dig my way out and make better decisions on the things I have control over.

Bush doesn't have control over some things. He doesn't control gas prices. To start with, OPEC sets the prices and controls how much oil we get. The refineries (owned by corporations, not the Federal government) refinds the oil to get gasoline. They sell to the gas stations who sell to the consumer. At each level, taxes are added and everyone has to make enough money on their sale to pay for the product they buy (including taxes) and make a profit.

Do you think Shell, or Texaco, or Exxon is giving gas to the stations owners? Do you think that Bush calls the CEO of any of these companies and tells them what to sell their product for? Doesn't happen.

If you want lower gas prices, we need to get rid of some of the taxes that are changed. There are Federal taxes, state, county and city taxes involved. I don't know for sure, but a good share of the price of gasoline is eaten up by taxes.

I've talked about the Fair Tax Act before. I won't get into it right now, but it would help to eliminate those taxes and bring prices down. Look into it. You'll see I'm right.

I said earlier that you need to look into things for yourself. Educate yourself. Unless you want politicians to run your life. If you do, you probably vote Democrat and won't believe anything I've written anyway.

hmmm, I had posted about the new look of Blogger, which I like for the most part. But I can't find the post I had already written, so here I am, rewriting! I'm sure it will turn up where I least expect to find it!

One of the changes offered is to allow comments from my visitors. I have enabled that, so if you see something that demands your comment, bring it on! I will remind you, dear reader, and my other reader, that I expect courtesy and respect from anyone who communicates with me. This is my blog, and I will not tolerate profanity or hatefulness. Should I chose to use some colorful words, that's my perogative. You can debate what I have to say, but use logic, commonsense, courtesy and respect. I reserve the right to delete your comments just as if you had nothing to say in the first place.

I do want to hear from you, so please use the email link. And if you want to comment, click on "comment" after the post. It will take you to a new page where you need to click on "post a comment." Then you will see a dialog box where you can post your comments. Please, talk to me!!

As I find more changes that I can use on this blog, I will be making changes. I hope you like them and what I have to say. Please come back, and please, check out some of the blogs I have linked to.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm not a mother, but I am a daughter. My brother and I had a great mother. We're the people we are today, thanks to her and Dad. We learned to be independent and strong individuals. We have a strong sense of self-worth and, while we make mistakes, we learn from them. We both have strong work ethics and sense of right and wrong. We know that success isn't measured by what we have, but by who we are. We love God, country, and family.

She went Home nine, almost ten years ago. I miss her as much today as I did the day she left us. I say left, but of course that's only in the physical sense. She's still with us today. I had surgery five months after she died and I know that she was in the operating room watching over the surgeon's every move and God help him if he made a mistake! She was there the day I got married. Someday I'll tell you about her contribution to my wedding.

She had told me a story about things that happened after her own mother died. Seems that there were unexplained things happening such as rapping on the cellar door, and a breeze blowing a heavy, wet, woolen rug. It was in the middle of winter and the rug was hung somewhere (I don't remember where now) to dry. The rug began to ripple as if there was a breeze. But, it wasn't over or near a radiator duct and it wasn't near a door or window where a draft would be blowing on it. Mom was a very logical person and looked for an explanation, but never found it.

The first person to hear the rapping was my Aunt Betty. She was about nine when it began. She and a friend were in the kitchen when they heard rapping on the cellar door. Betty told her friend to quit kicking the door (the friend was standing with her back to the door and close enough to be kicking it). The friend said she wasn't and moved to the same side of the table as Betty. They heard the rapping again and ran screaming from the house. My uncles, John and Bob, had been at a movie and came home about that time. They heard from the girls what was happening, and being big brotherly wanted to protect their sister from whoever was pulling such a prank. They went into the house and down the stairs into the basement. This was the only way into or out of the basement. There was no other door, no windows, and no place to hide. There was also no one in the basement.

Mom and my grandfather were home by the time the boys came out of the house. Pap did his own search and decided that whoever had been in the cellar got out after the girls ran out the kitchen door and left from the front of the house. The neighbor's were out by now, too, and no one saw anyone but the girls come out of the house, but of course it was possible.

The rapping continued off and on. The boys heard it. Betty heard it again. But Mom and Pap didn't until one night. Mom was doing the dinner dishes when Pap left the house. A few minutes later, the rapping started on the kitchen door. Mom knew there was no one in the cellar because she had been there earlier and then in the kitchen ever since She knew no one was in the basement. Just as she turned around, Pap came running in the house and into the cellar. He had been waiting outside, waiting to see if he could catch someone in the act.

When he came out of the cellar he told Mom there was no one there. Neither of them could explain the rapping. It finally stopped. Mom never said it was her mother, but she never said it wasn't. I often asked to hear the story as I was growing up and it never changed, was never embellished, it was always the same.

Mom died about 1030 on a beautiful, hot, Florida morning. That afternoon, my Dad and I were at my brother's house. John was on the phone talking to someone. I heard someone rap on the garage door leading into the house and said to my sis-in-law, Judi, that someone's at the door. She went to answer it and no one was there. I was the only one who heard it. Guess what I was thinking about right then. Judi and I were standing talking about it, when we both heard the rapping again. We sort of just looked at each other when we heard it again. This time, John called out to Judi to answer the door. When Judi went to the door, again, there was no one there. Judi and I looked at each other and said, "Mom!" Dad came in from another room and asked who was at the door. We explained what happened. Judi was sort of joking about it being Mom. That is, until I told the story of the rapping after her mother passed away.

John had never heard the story, and if Dad had, he had forgotten. I was the only one who would have understood the rapping. To this day, I believe it was Mom letting us know she was there. She rapped on the door because she knew I would understand and tell the others. I never heard the rapping after, but there were incidents of flickering lights at my house and my brother's house. My niece in Indiana also reported flickering lights. And each time the lights flickered, if we said something to acknowledge Mom, the lights stopped flickering. It was Mom's way of letting us know she was there. The flickering stopped after awhile. She knew we were alright and she could go on in her new life.